The Power of the E-v-E Ratio

How much time do you spend on activities that enhance your life?

Photo Credit: .reid.

Brian Tracy, entrepreneur and self-made millionaire, coined the term for the EvE Ratio, which is the amount of time (and money) a person spends on Entertainment vs. Education.

According to Brian, the average person spends 50 minutes on entertainment for every 1 minute spent on education and personal growth.

50:1, that’s a sad number!

If you want to find one of the fastest ways to increase your growth and begin to build an empire, it’s time to decrease your ratio and increase your action!

Power of the E-v-E Ratio

Reduce entertainment and increase education. This may be the most difficult part if you are used to drowning yourself in entertainment every day of the week. To be more clear, when I refer to entertainment I really mean any activity where you are turning off your brain and stunting your personal growth.

This could include everything from watching TV and blindly surfing the web, to going to sporting events or taking off on vacation. The goal is not to eliminate entertainment; it is to identify activities in your life that do not add any significant value to your life.

For example, when you think back to the best experiences you had last year, do you immediately remember all those hours spent reading the newspaper or watching Family Guy? Probably not. You most likely remember activities that changed your life in a dramatic way.

Examples of positive educational activities could include everything from self-help books and audio programs, to professional development seminars and even going back to graduate school.

The Second Switch

Enhance your education with direct, applicable, and bold action. Education can easily become another form of entertainment if it’s not coupled with bold action.

In other words, if you stopped watching TV to read a non-fiction book instead but you never used the information from the book, you have simply entertained your brain and made no real progress.

I will say that some education does not have direct action associated with it. Not everything you learn can be put on a to-do list. However, if you find information that you know should be acted on, then you should just do it.

More action equals more progress and that is the ultimate goal.

Information Overload

The double-edged sword of personal development is that the massive amount of useful knowledge you gain can lead to great success or enormous stress. This is a classic case of information overload or paralysis by analysis.

Make sure you pace yourself and only read as much as you can take action on.

So Much To Do, So Little Time

As you increase the time you spend on personal development, you will find yourself with an enormous to-do list that will take more time than you will ever have available.

Having too many to-dos can be incredibly stressful or an ideal situation because you will be able to prioritize that list and focus on the most effective tasks.

I say this is ideal because not every action is necessary. In fact, many of the ideas you get from your new knowledge may actually end up as a distraction from the tasks that are most important. Let me give you an example.

When I first started my previous blog at GraduatedAndClueless.com, I was very excited about the possibility of creating a podcast to go with it. I researched podcasting and then bought some podcast recording equipment. However, as excited as I was about podcasting, I knew that writing my book was by far the most important project in my life.

I had to force myself, almost daily, to walk away from podcasting to work on the book.

Daily Habits

Prioritizing and staying busy with highly productive habits are learnable skills. It’s actually not that hard to stay productive once you have created sustainable and motivating daily habits that keep you focused on your most important tasks.

Reading, listening to podcasts, and educating yourself are all wonderful tools to enhance your progress. The knowledge will keep you on the correct path to achieve your goal, much like asking for directions on a long road trip.

However, it is more important to take focused action on your highest priority tasks every day because, in the long run, action is infinitely more important than knowledge.

If you don’t use it, you lose it. Keep learning and keep working. Just make sure you work more often.

Calculate Your Ratio

To calculate your E-v-E Ratio, follow these steps:

1. Carry a pen and paper with you for just one 24-hour period and record the amount of time you spend on each activity.
2. At the end of a day, add up how much time you spent educating yourself through books, podcasts, how-to videos, and other methods.
3. Compare that number to the total amount of time you spent on pure entertainment through TV, the Internet, games, gossiping, or social time.
4. Your Entertainment number goes first (let’s say it was 180 minutes) and your Education number goes second (let’s say it was 30 minutes).

That’s a ratio of 180:30 or 6:1.

According to Brian Tracy’s standards, you’re a genius! You did a great job today. 6:1 might sound bad, but it’s considerable more impressive than 50:1.

Over time, decrease your ratio and watch how your progress improves.